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Interesting news regarding the DLC: I don't have the game yet (waiting on PC version, or when I pick up a Wii U), but apparently if you unplug your internet from the console, and set the clock to Christmas day (or beyond?),

Alex Kidd becomes playable

. Not paid DLC, a timed unlock.

Said unlock goes away when you reconnect to the internet and your console automatically adjusts the time back, but promising.

Member

Interesting news regarding the DLC: I don't have the game yet (waiting on PC version, or when I pick up a Wii U), but apparently if you unplug your internet from the console, and set the clock to Christmas day (or beyond?),

Alex Kidd becomes playable

. Not paid DLC, a timed unlock.

Said unlock goes away when you reconnect to the internet and your console automatically adjusts the time back, but promising.

Member

So what's the verdict on the Wii U version? Weird online/chars floating and such issues aside (which I assume will be fixed via patches), how does it stand against the 360 and PS3 versions? I was thinking about getting it alongside the console when it launches in Europe next week, but I may get NSMB Wii U instead if I hear it's not good.

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So what's the verdict on the Wii U version? Weird online/chars floating and such issues aside (which I assume will be fixed via patches), how does it stand against the 360 and PS3 versions? I was thinking about getting it alongside the console when it launches in Europe next week, but I may get NSMB Wii U instead if I hear it's not good.

It's great, it's easily my favorite Mario Kart clone since Diddy Kong Racing. The Wii U version runs better than the ps3 demo and there's no major bug as long as you don't install the first update (leave your Wii U offline after the 1GB system update). But if I had to choose between this game and NSMBU, I'd pick Mario.

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Started it up on PS3 this morning and it downloaded a new patch (or the only patch, I'm not sure PS+ ever downloaded it), and a couple bugs I saw were already squashed, like the Dragon Valley S-Rank Traffic Attack, which was driving me crazy because I was so damn close. The system works! Gonna go through some stuff again and check out what else got patched.

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The AI on the curien mansion boost race (behind the 200 star gate in world tour) is fucked. ALWAYS at least 15s ahead. I went down to hard and creamed the AI by 10 seconds. Can't do S Class to save my soul.

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First post updated!
Let me know if I missed anything about the game's info that I should add.
Also here's the review I wrote, I'd appreciate feedback on what stuff I should also point out and on Grammar, etc.:

Introduction
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, is the sequel to the 2010 Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, developed by SUMO who are known as big fans of SEGA. Transformed, overall, is a much better improvement over the first game in terms of track and the vehicles.

Graphics: 5/5
Theres really not much to say about the graphics aside that it is simply very beautiful. SUMO have done a great job of continuing SEGAs trend of brilliant visual presentation, as the games visuals and graphics are lively, energetic and with good detail. The track design is well done, and those familiar with the games they come from will appreciate the detail given to them. In addition, each character in the game has their vehicle which transforms into an aircraft or speedboat, and the player can also see how the vehicle transforms into the other forms if they look closely.

Sound: 5/5
This is one aspect of the game that greatly stands out, as the game has fantastic music courtesy of Richard Jacques who has composed music for various SEGA games as well as Mass Effect and Forza Motorsport 4.
In reality every stages track is a remix by Jacques from the game it comes from, and his remixes are amazing to say the least. Those familiar with classic SEGA games from the Genesis/Mega Drive, Arcade, Saturn and Dreamcast eras will be flooded with a tsunami of nostalgia upon hearing and recognizing the many themes in the game, be it the Shinobi stages remix of the first level from Shinobi III, or the Sonic & Knuckles intro theme in the Sky Sanctuary stage, or Vyses theme from Skies of Arcadia.

Gameplay: 4/5
The games improvement over its predecessor does an excellent job of making it stand out and not be a re-hash of the previous game, as most video game players might expect from sequels. The biggest changes to the game, are the introduction of an aircraft form and speedboat form, for sections in tracks where players must continue on water (or lava) or in the air. Much like the first game, there are unlockable characters, and they are unlocked through playing the main Single Player modes.
For starters, the games main Single Player modes, World Tour and Grand Prix, can both be complete by 4 offline players. World Tour is where everyone should start I feel; in WT mode, players play on a stage completing a specific race or challenge. Progressing through WT mode is done by collecting Stars, which are awarded by completing the challenges. When players start WT mode, they can play the challenges in any of 3 difficulties: Easy, Medium & Hard. Upon unlocking the final WT location, they can complete the challenges in a 4th difficulty, Expert. The player is awarded a Star for completing a stage on each difficulty, so completing a stage on Medium will award 2 stars as opposed to getting 1 star from finishing it on Easy.
Easy and Medium arent all that difficult and Medium is recommended to progress faster through WT mode and to learn the game and stages. Hard and Expert on the other hand, are quite unfair in Races overall as the AI gets a major speed boost and acceleration. Unfortunately, in order to unlock the remaining characters, the player may need to play on some stages on Hard to have enough Stars to unlock them. Non the less with diligence and patience, the higher difficulties of World Tour can be completed, and the player will reap the rewards of an interesting character, dubbed as a fanservice to long time SEGA fans.
Grand Prix has you play in a set of 4 stages and earning points by finishing in 1st or lower. By the end of the 4th race, the player with the highest points is declared the winner. This was something I wished the 1st game had, especially with how long the loading was in the first game.
As I said, WT mode is where everyone should start playing the game, as the stage by stage progress also lets players discover the stages and learn them. As I kept playing and unlocking stages, I was pleased and impressed by how well Sumo have gone in crafting the tracks.
Which brings me to the tracks themselves, various tracks will change their layout by the 2nd or 3rd lap. This may seem jarring at first, but it is a fantastic change from the regular trend in racers. Furthermore, its not difficult to learn these new tracks if one puts the effort into learning them.
Like many Kart racing games before it, there are items and weapons laid out on the tracks which can assist players in winning the race and getting a lead. Each character also has their own All-Star move which when used grants the player extra speed and the ability to damage enemies surrounding them or from afar (Think Crash Team Racings mask power-up but with long range missiles), as well as boost pads which when driving on gives the character a short burst of speed. It is also possible to disable weapons and play it as a regular arcade racer, doing so will add a few more boost pads on the stage.
Other modes in the game include Online, Single Race (where 1-4 players can play on any of the stages in the game) and Time attack modes. I havent had any issues playing the game online, and up to 4 offline players can also play in any lobbies.
Finally, we come to what I feel is a low point in the game; the actual character roster itself. The first game had a magnificent roster, featuring Opa Opa, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue, The Bonanza Bros. & Jacky and Akira from Virtua Fighter (driving what appears to be the car from SEGAs classic Outrun series). This roster doesnt feature many iconic and obscure SEGA characters sadly, but over time you get over it. In my opinion, the characters most players will be interested in playing as is Joe Musashi, from the classic Shinobi series. Hes pretty much been my go to character for online play.
Overall however, players will be able to find their character of choice based on their stats, which can also be altered to their preference. As one keeps playing with a character they will unlock mods for them that alter the stats of their vehicle, Sonic, for example, can have better handling of his vehicle while giving up a little of his speed or acceleration.

Replay value: 5/5
Even after unlocking everything, or as much as possible in the game, competing with friends and family in this game can never get boring, making it a great game to play in get togethers.

Final Score: 9/10
The biggest cons of this game being the roster, the higher difficulties being very unfair and that unlocking stuff in World Tour mode requires playing on said unfair higher difficulties. However, this is easily overlooked by how fun the game ends up being, from discovering the stages and the well thought track progression and structure, to listening to a nostalgic and amazingly composed soundtrack, to the countless hours of fun playing with others, Sumo and SEGA have developed an excellent, must have racer, if youre a fan of racing or SEGA in general.
The game is currently available in any electronics and game shops, and can be purchased from the European PSN Store for £30.

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Had some weird glitches in the 360 version with the NiGHTS, Billy hatcher and Shinobi stages where the stage glitches out into weird colours for a split second. In particular if you take the left shortcut on the Shinobi stage so you jump out into the courtyard. Also seen it after the boss stage transfer on the Nights stage.

Hapens on A and S-Class mostly. So Going too fast, just a bit of weirdness or is my 360 about to cark it?

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First post updated!
Let me know if I missed anything about the game's info that I should add.
Also here's the review I wrote, I'd appreciate feedback on what stuff I should also point out and on Grammar, etc.:

You seem to have hit all the main points bar the few collision issues, it's a solid review.
I'll probably throw down some sort of review/analysis at some point in the near future, but not until i've unlocked Ages, i'm drawing close now.
Though personally i'd start off with the grand prix modes instead of world tour.

It's a tough but fair game. A and S class are hard but only because the AI is pretty ruthless rather than using some awful rubberbanding like most games. They will hit every Drfit and every boost and get very aggressive with you (I've had some straight up slam me off the road, Burnout style). As long as you can race well and understand you are going to have to practice and the game isn't going to give everything to you, you should be fine.

I was wondering this as well but I also own a Gaming PC and 360 was debating which version to get (bough the first on the 360 due added racer Banjo). I was learning more to the Wii U version because of 5 player local option but I'm holding out because of the bugs.

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You seem to have hit all the main points bar the few collision issues, it's a solid review.
I'll probably throw down some sort of review/analysis at some point in the near future, but not until i've unlocked Ages, i'm drawing close now.
Though personally i'd start off with the grand prix modes instead of world tour.

May I ask what caused the removal of characters from the previous game? Was is the vehicle transforming? SEGA's decision? I am honestly just curious. Love the game! I got the Wii U and PS3 versions lol.

Member

I just wouldn't be able to sit through things like drift/boost challenge and traffic attack knowing that there were other tracks that i'd yet to play out there, that's why it's GP first for me.

I finally unlocked Ages and Reala, while the Nights car and driver is pure nightmare fuel the Reala and whatever evil grinning thing is driving combo is pretty cool (i'm sure there's some irony in there) and looks like a swanky ride. Near Risk Boosts make the second lap of the nights stage so much better.

Right, i'm done with World Tour, I don't care for those other mods or what lies beyond 200 stars, i'd go mad trying to S rank all of this.

After the patch I'm noticing a lot of the challenges that were near impossible seem much more manageable. Maybe it's just because I've been banging my head against them long enough to break through, but I've hit 198 stars and finished 2 of the world tour cups completely.

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Just getting an A rank in the monkey ball boost challenge was making me go bananas and traffic attack isn't much fun either. The rest I could see myself brute forcing through but I don't feel the reward in this case is worth the gruelling tasks asked of me, more power to you if you can pull it off, you'll have the moniker of Berordn Transformed

Member

When people quit mid race online, do they lose their trueskill ranking at all? I noticed rather high players quit out if losing :/ I myself stick it out even if I will lose some points.

Oh my god collisions online are shit, twice over the bridge area on the JSR classic track I went flying into the air for 5 seconds landing in an OOB area, no one was around me! this never happened in the first game what has happened sumo!

Member

When people quit mid race online, do they lose their trueskill ranking at all? I noticed rather high players quit out if losing :/ I myself stick it out even if I will lose some points.

Oh my god collisions online are shit, twice over the bridge area on the JSR classic track I went flying into the air for 5 seconds landing in an OOB area, no one was around me! this never happened in the first game what has happened sumo!

Yesterday I started off a race and not even a second after it started BD Joe rammed me off the starting grid of seaside hill into the water, online collisions are a dangerous game.
The scoring system seems a bit wack, I frequently came in 2nd place in races with 6 or 7 players and would lose points for it, it's not like i'm sitting on a mountain of them or anything, even so quitting mid race is the cowards way out.

Member

Argh. I want to get all the stars in World Tour. I think I can do it (I've done all the challenges in the first and last tour), but some of them are just hard to the point of not being fun. I just beat the first Traffic Attack level (Shibuya Downtow) on Expert after nearly an hour of trying.

Strangely, the last Traffic Attack (Sunshine Tour), although also hard, was nowhere near as bad by comparison. The fact that you got missiles and could clear a path for yourself helped a lot. Likewise, when I did the Ocean View one on Hard, I found that if you're lucky and get a Super Glove or two, it becomes pretty easy, as you're invincible for a rather long amount of time. Hopefully I get lucky on Expert too.

That leaves the Dragon Valley one, but the last thing I feel like doing now is doing Traffic Attack, so another time.

Member

Argh. I want to get all the stars in World Tour. I think I can do it (I've done all the challenges in the first and last tour), but some of them are just hard to the point of not being fun. I just beat the first Traffic Attack level (Shibuya Downtow) on Expert after nearly an hour of trying.

Strangely, the last Traffic Attack (Sunshine Tour), although also hard, was nowhere near as bad by comparison. The fact that you got missiles and could clear a path for yourself helped a lot. Likewise, when I did the Ocean View one on Hard, I found that if you're lucky and get a Super Glove or two, it becomes pretty easy, as you're invincible for a rather long amount of time. Hopefully I get lucky on Expert too.

That leaves the Dragon Valley one, but the last thing I feel like doing now is doing Traffic Attack, so another time.

I don't think the traffic attack levels with item boxes are actually random, the ones that give super gloves always seem to give super gloves. Knowing that helped me finally do the Dragon Valley one, since I was able to time a super glove on the final wave and completely ignore the cars.

Member

I don't think the traffic attack levels with item boxes are actually random, the ones that give super gloves always seem to give super gloves. Knowing that helped me finally do the Dragon Valley one, since I was able to time a super glove on the final wave and completely ignore the cars.

Member

Do you just need certain characters/vehicles to beat certain challenges? I just could NOT beat the Joe Musashi time trial thing with Sonic on medium, no matter how perfectly I did the route. Then again, maybe the fact that I was on pretty much the same route as the CPU means my approach was wrong in the first place?

Anyway, got Poochie (Shadow) unlocked, so I think I'll take a small break for now.

Member

Do you just need certain characters/vehicles to beat certain challenges? I just could NOT beat the Joe Musashi time trial thing with Sonic on medium, no matter how perfectly I did the route. Then again, maybe the fact that I was on pretty much the same route as the CPU means my approach was wrong in the first place?

You don't strictly need to use other characters, though the attributes actually will make a difference on certain tracks and events. For the most part, I've been clearing them with whichever character I was leveling up at the time, switching mods as I go, or to NiGHTS if something required a certain amount of precision that I didn't have with that character at the time. It's all about playstyle really.